Cleared 9/11 suspect leaves Germany

Moroccan Abdelghani Mzoudi, cleared of involvement in the September 11 attacks but considered a security threat in Germany, has flown home to avoid being forcibly deported within 48 hours.

Mzoudi's acquittal was confirmed by a federal court on June 9 but Hamburg city authorities said he posed a danger to Germany and gave him two weeks to leave the country or face being arrested and deported.

Mzoudi's lawyer Michael Rosenthal confirmed he had flown with his client early today from Hanover to Agadir, where they arrived without incident.

"We are very happy to see him, he arrived at Agadir airport at 6pm, his family was waiting for him," Mustapha Mezoudi, a brother of Abdelghani Mzoudi, told Reuters by phone from Marrakesh.

"The Moroccan authorities didn't bother him nor interrogate him, it was all quite normal and they told him 'welcome to your country'."

Mustapha said his brother was now resting at the family home in Marrakesh and was very tired.

Hamburg authorities have said they will also expel Mzoudi's friend and fellow Moroccan, Mounir El Motassadeq, if he too is acquitted of complicity in the September 11 attacks on the United States which killed nearly 3,000 people in 2001.

Both men were friends of Mohamed Atta and other members of the Hamburg cell which led the attacks, but they deny knowledge of the plot.

Motassadeq is on trial for the second time, having won an appeal against his initial conviction.

Germany introduced a new law on January 1 making it easier to expel suspected foreign militants.

In the southern state of Bavaria alone, 12 people have been expelled since November and 37 other cases are pending. The latest deportees were an Egyptian and an Afghan who were sent home last week for suspected terrorist links.